Rajni birthday ku munnadi naal Bharathiyaar birthday!

12/12 – TV channels screamed Rajni’s praise non stop. Papers, radios, net sites, just any kind of media carried special news items on Rajnikanth. All channels showcased his movies and some also ran a short video on his life history – where he is/ was, what he is/ was doing, every minute of every day!

Now, I am a Rajni fan – probably one of his greatest undeclared fans. Honestly, I enjoyed watching Muthu, Mannan, Netrikann and Thalapathi back to back on the same day. I do not blame the TV channels for encashing his popularity on his big day. Nothing wrong in celebrating 12/12. Rajni is a legend, a superstar no doubt.

All the same, shouldn’t these channels have atleast made one mention on 11/12 about Subramaniya Bharathi?

I switched channels desperately to see if someone somewhere was showing something on the great man. No one, nowhere save for a very short program on DD.

Is he not worth it? Wouldn’t even one advertiser pay for it? Can’t TV giants spend one single minute in remembrance of such a legendary freedom fighter? Shouldn’t the tamil media, the so called tamil saving kazhagams honour a person who gave the world a wealth of tamil literature? For a person who kindled the spirit of freedom by his poems, for a person who made the British Empire tremble by his mere words, shouldn’t the media dedicate a minute of its income? Shouldn’t the women’s organizations be celebrating the birth anniversary of a person who fought for women’s rights in times when such a concept was unheard of? Didn’t his guts that made him say in open court “எமக்கு தொழில் கவிதை. பின் நாட்டுக்காக உழைத்தல், ஆண்டவன் தொண்டு.” deserve a statement from any one political leader – not even those who claim they will lay down their lives for tamil?

All this just makes me feel angry. I was mentioning this to the kid in the flat downstairs (he studies in 9th std and knows a bit about Bharathiyar). I was venting out my frustration and saying that people did not even remember such a great man. He was saying that there might be an easy way to remember Bharathi’s birthday. And what may that be? “Akka, Rajni birthday ku mundhina naal dhaane Bharathiyar birthday? We can remember it like that.” I cannot explain what I went through when I heard this. I made some excuse and ran upstairs into my house.

What you say is true. I have been thinking pretty much the same thing, with a slight difference. Has there been anything – just anything at all that has happened since our independence that we can proud of? Any invention, any architecture, any new techniques, anything that benefits the people? Absolutely nothing. Idha pathi kooda oru blog ezhudhanum nu I have in mind…. coming soon…. 🙂